Elsevier

Ad Hoc Networks

Volume 4, Issue 5, September 2006, Pages 621-635
Ad Hoc Networks

A probabilistic algorithm for efficient and robust data propagation in wireless sensor networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2005.06.006Get rights and content

Abstract

We study the problem of data propagation in sensor networks, comprised of a large number of very small and low-cost nodes, capable of sensing, communicating and computing. The distributed co-operation of such nodes may lead to the accomplishment of large sensing tasks, having useful applications in practice. We present a new protocol for data propagation towards a control center (“sink”) that avoids flooding by probabilistically favoring certain (“close to optimal”) data transmissions. Motivated by certain applications (see [I.F. Akyildiz, W. Su, Y. Sankarasubramaniam, E. Cayirci, Wireless sensor networks: a survey, Journal of Computer Networks 38 (2002) 393–422], [C. Intanagonwiwat, R. Govindan, D. Estrin, Directed diffusion: a scalable and robust communication paradigm for sensor networks, in: 6th ACM/IEEE Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing (MOBICOM 2000), 2000, pp. 56–67]) and also as a starting point for a rigorous analysis, we study here lattice-shaped sensor networks. We however show that this lattice shape emerges even in randomly deployed sensor networks of sufficient sensor density. Our work is inspired and builds upon the directed diffusion paradigm of [C. Intanagonwiwat, R. Govindan, D. Estrin, Directed diffusion: a scalable and robust communication paradigm for sensor networks, in: 6th ACM/IEEE Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing (MOBICOM 2000), 2000, pp. 56–67].

This protocol is very simple to implement in sensor devices, uses only local information and operates under total absence of co-ordination between sensors. We consider a network model of randomly deployed sensors of sufficient density. As shown by a geometry analysis, the protocol is correct, since it always propagates data to the sink, under ideal network conditions (no failures). Using stochastic processes, we show that the protocol is very energy efficient. Also, when part of the network is inoperative, the protocol manages to propagate data very close to the sink, thus in this sense it is robust. We finally present and discuss large-scale simulation findings validating the analytical results.

Section snippets

Introduction, our results and related work

Recent dramatic developments in micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) systems, wireless communications and digital electronics have led to the development of small in size, low-power, low-cost sensor devices. Such extremely small devices integrate sensing, data processing and communication capabilities. Examining each such device individually might appear to have small utility, however the effective distributed co-ordination of large numbers of such devices may lead to the efficient accomplishment of

The model

Sensor networks are comprised of a vast number of ultra-small homogenous sensors, which we call “grainparticles. Each grain particle is a fully-autonomous computing and communication device, characterized mainly by its available power supply (battery) and the energy cost of computation and transmission of data. Such particles (in our model here) cannot move.

Each particle is equipped with a set of monitors (sensors) for light, pressure, humidity, temperature etc. and has a broadcast (digital

The problem

Assume that a single particle, P, senses the realization of a local crucial event E. Then the propagation problem P is the following:

“How can particle P, via co-operation with the rest of the grain particles, efficiently propagate information info(E), reporting realization of event E, to the sink S?”

To minimize the energy consumption in the sensor network we wish to avoid flooding and to minimize the number of hops (directed transmissions) performed in the data propagation process, while still

The probabilistic forwarding protocol (PFR)

As already mentioned in Section 1, the basic idea of the protocol lies in probabilistically favoring transmissions towards the sink within a thin zone of particles around the line connecting the particle sensing the event E and the sink (see Fig. 1). Note that transmission along this line is energy optimal. However it is not always possible to achieve this optimality, basically because certain sensors on this direct line might be inactive, either permanently (because their energy has been

Properties of PFR

Consider a partition of the network area into small squares of a fictitious grid G (see Fig. 4). Let the length of the side of each square be l. Let the number of squares be q. The area covered is bounded by ql2. Assuming that we randomly throw in the area at least αq log q = N particles (where α > 0 a suitable constant), then the probability that a particular square is avoided is1-1qαqlogqe-αlogq=q-α.So the probability that all squares get particles is at least1-q·q-α=1-q-(α-1)=1-ΘNlogN-(α-1).We

Simulation results

We validate the theoretical results and investigate the asymptotic behavior of the PFR protocol by conducting a set of large scale simulations. Our implementation follows closely the protocol description of Section 4 and is based on C++ and the Library of Efficient Data types and Algorithms (LEDA) [20].

We start by examining the energy efficiency of PFR by measuring the ratio r of the number of activated particles over the total number of particles r=kn2. We used lattice shaped sensor fields

Conclusions and future work

We presented here a new protocol for information propagation in sensor networks. This protocol can be used either directly to solve a local crucial event detection and propagation problem or as part of a more general information dissemination paradigm (such as in [15]). PFR is based only on local information (and thus it is necessary a probabilistic one) and succeeds to efficiently propagate information to the sink without flooding the network (although each transmitting particle broadcasts

Acknowledgement

This work has been partially supported by the IST Programme of the European Union under contract numbers IST-2001-33116 (FLAGS) and IST-2004-001907 (DELIS).

Ioannis Chatzigiannakis is currently a Researcher of Research Unit 1 (“Foundations of Computer Science, Relevant Technologies and Applications”) at the Computer Technology Institute (CTI), Patras, Greece and also a Post-doc PHD Researcher at the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department of Patras University, Greece. His research interests include Fundamental Issues in Mobile Computing, Data Propagation in Wireless Sensor Networks, Cooperative Mobile Robotic Systems and Algorithmic

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  • Cited by (0)

    Ioannis Chatzigiannakis is currently a Researcher of Research Unit 1 (“Foundations of Computer Science, Relevant Technologies and Applications”) at the Computer Technology Institute (CTI), Patras, Greece and also a Post-doc PHD Researcher at the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department of Patras University, Greece. His research interests include Fundamental Issues in Mobile Computing, Data Propagation in Wireless Sensor Networks, Cooperative Mobile Robotic Systems and Algorithmic Engineering.

    He received his BEng degree from the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK in 1997 and his Ph.D degree from the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the University of Patras, Greece in 2003. His Ph.D advisor was Paul Spirakis.

    He has published scientific articles in international conferences and journals. He has participated in EU funded R&D projects and project funded by the Private Section.

    Tassos Dimitriou is an assistant professor at Athens Information Technology interested in various aspects of Theoretical Computer Science like Combinatorial Optimization, Analysis of Heuristics for difficult to solve problems, Use of Randomness in algorithms and Derandomization techniques, Generation of hard instances for SATisfiability problems and analysis of SAT heuristics, Algorithms for Selfish Agents and Smart Dust systems, Cryptography.

    He received his B.Sc. degree from the Computer Science and Engineering Department of the University of Patras, Greece back in 1990 and his M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees from the University of California, San Diego in 1993 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D advisor was Russell Impagliazzo.

    Sotiris Nikoletseas is currently a Senior Researcher and Managing Director of Research Unit 1 (“Foundations of Computer Science, Relevant Technologies and Applications”) at the Computer Technology Institute (CTI), Patras, Greece and also a Lecturer at the Computer Engineering and Informatics Department of Patras University, Greece. His research interests include Probabilistic Techniques and Random Graphs, Average Case Analysis of Graph Algorithms and Randomized Algorithms, Fundamental Issues in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Approximate Solutions to Computationally Hard Problems. He has published scientific articles in major international conferences and journals and has co-authored (with Paul Spirakis) a book on Probabilistic Techniques.

    He has been invited speaker in important international scientific events and Universities. He has been a referee for the Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) Journal and important international conferences (ESA, ICALP). He has participated in many EU funded R&D projects (ESPRIT/ALCOM-IT, ESPRIT/GEPPCOM). He currently participates in 6 Fifth Framework projects: ALCOM-FT, ASPIS, UNIVERSAL, EICSTES (IST), ARACNE, AMORE (IMPROVING).

    Paul Spirakis (google: Paul Spirakis) born in 1955, obtained his Ph.D from Harvard University, USA, in 1982. Has served as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University and as an Assistant Professor at New York University, (the Courant Institute). He was appointed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Patras University (Greece) in 1987 and promoted to Full Professor in the same department in 1990.

    He was honored several times with international prizes and grants (e.g. NSF), also the top prize of the Greek Mathematics Society. He was appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist of Max Planck Informatik in 2001. His research interests include probabilistic methods in algorithms, combinatorial optimization, average case analysis of algorithms, parallel algorithms, algorithms and protocols for distributed systems, algorithms and complexity of graph theoretic problems, parallel complexity, approximations to hard problems. Recently, research on Foundational issues of algorithmic game theory. He has done work also in design and applications of network protocols, security in computer networks, telematics problems and services, telematics in Education, Performance analysis of computer systems, performance and algorithms for databases, distributed systems design, Queueing Theory.

    He has extensively published in most of the important Computer Science Journals and most of the significant refereed conferences including the ACM STOC, the ACM/IEEE FOCS, the ACM SPAA, the ACM PODC, most of the other ACM conferences and the major European Conferences like ICALP, STACS, e.g. He has edited various conference proceedings and is currently an Editor of the Mathematical Systems Theory Journal, the Elsevier Computational Geometry J., the Parallel Processing Letters Journal, the Journal of Theoretical Computer Science and the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing.

    He had published two books through Cambridge University Press, four books in Greek with Gutenberg publications, two books with Patras University and two books with Greek Letters publications. He was the Greek National Representative in the Information Society Research Programme (IST) from January 1999 till June 2002. He was elected unanimously as one of the two vice-President of the Council of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), in July 2002 in the Icalp Conference that took place in Malaga, Spain. He is member of ISTAG (Information Society Technologies Advisory Group) a prestigious body of about 40 individuals advising EU for research policy, from January 2003 on. He consults for the Greek State, the European Union and several major Greek Computing Industries.

    A preliminary version of this work has appeared in the 5th European Wireless Conference on Mobile and Wireless Systems beyond 3G (EW, 2004 [7]).

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